


Misadventures in Nalbina

by Lassarina



Series: 2017 Sev and Rina Prompt Extravaganza [17]
Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 18:59:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12065064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/pseuds/Lassarina
Summary: Balthier has to explain why they can't visit that particular tavern.





	Misadventures in Nalbina

"Not that one," Balthier said, a little too quickly to match casual tone he tried to affect.

Ashe glanced back. He stood in the street, well back from the door of the tavern she had just approached. Fran stood behind him, her face impassive, her right ear swiveled faintly outward in what Ashe had eventually identified as mild amusement.

"And what is wrong with this one?" she asked.

Fran's mouth was actually curving upward, a fascinating indicator of just how amused she was. "We are not welcome in that tavern," she said.

Ashe raised an eyebrow.

Balthier met her gaze without flinching, although the way he spun his rings on his fingers gave the lie to his insouciance.

"Is this the sort of story I want to hear, or would I do well to disclaim all knowledge?"

"Certainly not in the street," Balthier said, and resettled his cuffs.

Fran's ear did a full swivel. "The Gryphon, then?"

"An excellent proposal." Balthier strode away, and Ashe followed, bemused.

The Gryphon was a small tavern tucked into a side street in Nalbina, pleasantly well-kept. The tavern master appeared to be familiar with Balthier and Fran, for he brought to their table a bottle of Bhujerban _madhu_ and three glasses without being asked or signaled. He poured the first round, nodded politely, and headed back to his post behind the bar.

Ashe accepted the glass that Balthier handed to her, and raised her eyebrows at him. "Well, pirate?" She kept her voice low enough not to carry beyond their table, for Nalbina was yet thick with Imperials despite its supposed freedom, and she did not especially relish a trip to the dungeons beneath the fortress, nor betraying her disguise and revealing her true identity.

"Well, what?" He sipped his _madhu_ and sighed appreciatively.

"Will you tell me how you came to be barred from that tavern?" Usually he could not wait to brag of his exploits; Ashe read his reticence as an indication that the story was embarrassing, and she found herself captivated by the idea of something the sky pirate had not done perfectly. Even a leading man must stumble from time to time.

His lips twisted for a moment. "Never one to let it go, are you?" He shook his head and sipped again. "Well, there was a matter of a bet."

"Several bets," Fran corrected.

"Several, then, if you must." He nudged Ashe's glass closer to her and she took the hint. The almost painful sweetness of _madhu_ flowed over her tongue, delightfully chilled and carrying a hint of warm cinnamon. "Regardless of the number, wagers were made. They had to do with a hunt mark on a particularly infamous sky pirate, one who would not be content with dashing adventures and ill-gotten gains, but felt it necessary to cause the deaths of those he robbed."

Ashe glanced to Fran for corroboration, and the viera carefully set down her glass. "He sought not merchants, but rather wealthy families—always families, together."

Ashe frowned, and Balthier nodded. "Just so. Wagers aplenty there were, that no one would catch him without shooting his ship from the sky. And many hunters had met their end trying to meet him in personal combat."

"So you took the bet?" Ashe asked.

"Are you telling this story, Princess, or am I?" He smirked into his drink, but continued. "As you guessed, I did take the bet, and we were planning the perfect trap. We came here to Nalbina for supplies."

Fran's left ear twitched slightly, and Ashe guessed that Balthier had elided a good many details. "And having gotten supplies, we must get drinks," Fran said, mildly.

It was hard to tell in the dim light, but Ashe thought a flush might have touched Balthier's face. Mayhap it was the _madhu._

"Very important, that," Balthier said casually, and refilled Ashe's glass, then his own and Fran's. "So we went to the Clucking Nanna for a mug of beer, as Nalbina's status didn't run to _madhu_ at the time."

He paused, staring into his glass, until Fran pushed the issue. "The pirate was there," she said, and the tips of her ears flattened to indicate her displeasure.

"He was there," Balthier agreed, "celebrating his most recent victory. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that that one alone would have sufficed to see him hanged by any law that caught him." He turned the glass idly from side to side, watching light shine on the liquid within. "I would like to say that we enacted what of our plan we could and laid a clever trap for him, but you have never cared for lies, have you, Princess?"

Her throat felt hot and tight. She took a sip to loosen it, and her voice came out rough-edged. "I have not," she said.

"Straight into a fight with nary a bit of preparation," Balthier mused. "The gods alone know what saw us through."

"We did not deserve to win," Fran said.

"Ah, now, Fran, I'm the leading man. Of course I deserved to win." He stretched his legs out beneath the table and sighed. "Though by all rights of battle, we didn't. I charged in without even changing out the shot in my gun, and lucky for me I had Fran to lend her aid."

"We had the advantage of surprise, though not any other," Fran observed.

"Once they saw how the fight was going, others joined in, and no one man can stand against two dozen pirates bent on a brawl." Balthier drained his glass, and Ashe wondered how much longer he would be steady, at that rate. "The tavern keeper did not care for the fight that we started, so we may not go back to the Clucking Nanna."

Ashe considered her drink. "I would rather drink _madhu_ than beer, myself," she said. "It sounds as though you did Nalbina a service."

"So he claimed when the constables came looking," Fran said, and her ear was swiveled to amusement again. "They were persuaded."

Ashe guessed the persuasion had more to do with the weight of coin than the rightness of their cause, but it made a good story nonetheless. "I see," she said. "Perhaps you might one day tell me which pirate this was, that his name might be stricken from the wanted lists and a suitable reward delivered?"

Balthier's glass hit the table with an audible thump. "Let it go, Ashe," he said.

Fran's face was impassive again, her ears perfectly still. Ashe wondered what part of the story had not been told.

"Very well," she said, and finished her own drink. "Are you fit to fly me back to my city, then?"

"Back, so soon?" He smiled, visibly throwing off the weight of the story he had told, and wagged his finger at her. "All work and no play makes Ashe a dull Queen, my dear. The night is young yet." He waved to the tavern master, and then got to his feet. "Excuse me a moment."

When he was out of earshot, Fran turned to Ashe. "He will take no reward for it, nor would I," she said, "but if you feel you must do something, you will."

Ashe considered what Fran had said—and what she had not. "I imagine that someone like yourself knows where a reward could best be put to use," she said after a moment. "Send word, and it will be done."

Fran nodded, and tipped the last drop of golden liquor into her glass. "Let us speak no more of business," she said, and Ashe smiled and raised her own glass in perfect agreement.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "And that's why we can't go back to that Inn/Tavern."


End file.
